Julia Galloway
Utilitarian Pottery

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cup cups cups
cups pitcher pitcher
carafe2 creamandsugarset creamandsugarset
creamandsugarset creamandsugarset creamandsugarset
tumblers

Solace of Urban Spaces

In this recent work, I observe and create city and home landscape, public and personal landscapes, internal and external landscapes. I am interested in the elements of the cityscape I see from my window. The surfaces illuminate the morning and evening, domestic and urban. The images on the surface of the pots represent this time passage and surrounds, embraces the actual use of the pots.
Together all these pots make up a visual experience that reflects the private and public transitions of our lives. As all of this pottery is useful it is made to be experienced in two ways: public - in a gallery, to look at, and then private - in you home as useful object.
In this exhibition the cups with cityscapes lined the walls around the gallery. The cups are decorated with specific streets from my neighborhood, all around downtown Rochester. One side of the tumbler is the nighttime, the other morning. These tumblers are useful sizes and can be used for any drinking nourishment.
Next there was a half circle of large pitchers, displayed on very tall pedestals. These pitchers are decorated with ironwork fence patterns. These are large pitchers; they are strong in their thickness, handle size and their presence. Such a large pitcher would be used often to make more of a statement, at a formal dining occasion or large gathering.
Inside this half circle of pitchers there are a few very low pedestals that have cream and sugar beds on them. Being displayed at knee height leads the viewer to a level of intimacy when investigating the objects. The viewer has to bend over to see the work and investigate it closely. This is similar to using the work. The Cream and Sugar sets are delicate, and demand the users attention when pouring out their nourishment into the coffee drinking ritual.
When moving through the gallery, one walks around the outside, in the city, then walks around the fence of pitchers into the small domestic cream and sugar sets. When looking at the cream and sugar sets, one looks through the pitcher fence to the city landscape outside.
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Julia Galloway
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